Tag Archives: rock

On Sunday night, Ellen DeGeneres was ordering pizza and taking selfies with Hollywood's A-list as host of the Academy Awards. This Wednesday, the comedian and daytime TV favorite will be running with a different crowd: the scruffy guitar-slingers of Cage the Elephant.

The rock band - whose members call Nashville and Bowling Green, Ky. home - will perform their Modern Rock chart-topper "Come a Little Closer" on Wednesday's episode of "The Ellen DeGeneres Show." The tune is bringing the band to a broader audience, as it recently cracked the top 25 on the Adult Top 40 chart.

“The ‘journeyman’ talk gets old,” says Kimbrough, an Americana Music Association instrumentalist of the year winner whose prodigious fretboard skills are such that fans nicknamed him “The Alien.” “I’m not a journeyman, but I’m hungry for collaboration, and I’ve had plenty of it.”

A journeyman is a wanderer. Kimbrough, 49, hasn’t really wandered. His life in music is one of intention.

“I’ve been extremely lucky and had learning and growing and joyful experiences with people that I love,” he says. “But I realized maybe late in life that if you write songs and want to sing them, that’s what you ought to be doing, if you can do it.”

At this point, it just wouldn't be Valentine's Day in Nashville without a visit from Rick Springfield. For the last several years, the "Jessie's Girl" and former "General Hospital" star has celebrated the holiday with a concert (or two) at the Wildhorse Saloon.

This year's snowy weather across the nation, however, threatened to put an end to that tradition. Earlier this week, Springfield was in Atlanta - or "Atlantarctica," as he puts it - filming on the Lifetime TV series, "Drop Dead Diva."

Luckily for him, so was Rascal Flatts' Jay DeMarcus, who has an unspecified guest role on the show. Rather than risk air travel, DeMarcus gave Springfield a lift back to Nashville in his tour bus Wednesday night.

Weatherly, who penned the Gladys Knight & the Pips classic "Midnight Train to Georgia," will be inducted during a June 12 ceremony in New York City. The 2014 class also includes Ray Davies of The Kinks, folk-rocker Donovan, English songsmith Graham Gouldman of 10cc and "Suspicious Minds" writer Mark James.

Alt-rock favorites Weezer will play two concerts at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium on April 5 and 6. On the 5th, they'll perform their 1994 self-titled debut album in its entirety, and on the 6th, they'll tackle the 1996 followup, "Pinkerton." A "greatest hits" set will close out both nights.

Tickets are $54.50 - $89.50 and go on sale at noon central this Fri., February 14 via Ticketmaster, the Ryman box office, ryman.com or by calling 1-800-745-3000.

Nearly five years after they last took the stage in Music City, the members of Nashville rock group Kings of Leon were happy to see a hometown crowd at Bridgestone Arena on Friday night.

"It's been too long," frontman Caleb Followill told the packed house early in the evening, later adding, "It's good to be home."

Nashville was just the second stop on the band's two-month arena tour in support of their sixth album, "Mechanical Bull." After testing the waters in Atlanta on Wednesday, the band seemed right up to speed, plowing through dozens of songs from all points in their catalog, from 2003's "Molly's Chambers" to last year's "Supersoaker."

After 20 years of penning and performing country hits, James House is ready to rock.

The singer-songwriter known for his 1995 solo hit "This is Me Missing You," and for co-writing smashes like Martina McBride's "A Broken Wing," has formed a bluesy, hard-rocking combo called The Troubadour Kings. The trio - which also features in-demand guitarist Lou Toomey and bassist/producer Michael Bradford - will play 3rd & Lindsley on Sunday to celebrate the release of their new album, "Ghost of Juarez."

"To me, it's just music," House tells The Tennessean. "Both genres are part of me. It allows me to write a different kind of song, and express myself, and that's why I really wanted to do it. There was no setting out like we're gonna conquer the world, or anything. It was just pure 'Let's make some music here.'"

House didn't even set out to start a band. He played some demos he'd been working on for Bradford, who was inspired to add bass to the mix, and after hearing their collaborations, Toomey contributed his guitar work. The band's name was House's wife's idea. He says they were "astounded" when they discovered it hadn't been trademarked.

"'Kings' is kind of pretentious," House says with a laugh. "But it sounded good."

CLICK FOR PHOTO GALLERY: Dierks Bentley performs during the 8th annual Miles and Music For Kids concert (Photo: Shelley Mayes/The Tennessean)

Country music fans will see a lot of Dierks Bentley on CMT in the coming weeks.

The “I Hold On” singer, who will release his new album “Riser” on Feb. 25, allowed video cameras to follow him for the last two years documenting life’s biggest – and smallest – moments. The footage was edited into a documentary and contains the life-changing events that inspired “Riser,” including the loss of Bentley’s father and the birth of his son Knox.

“I want this album to sum up just who I am as a guy going through these different changes in life that happen when you lose your dad and you get married and you have kids, but you’re still on the road rocking and playing video games and acting like you’re 13 years old on stage with a guitar in your hand,” Bentley said in the documentary.

Fans can check out a special edit of the film 1 p.m. Feb. 22 on CMT. The full length will premiere at 8 p.m. the same day on Palladia. “Dierks Bentley: Riser” will eventually be available for purchase.

In addition, Bentley is set to join Grammy-nominated rock band OneRepublic for a new episode of CMT Crossroads. The episode will be filmed in town later this week and will air on the network in mid-March.

Football fans caught a glimpse of OneRepublic on Super Bowl Sunday when the band was featured in Bud Light’s "Ian Up For Whatever" commercial during the game.

That’s the way Nashville songwriter Even Stevens was feeling as he drove home from the Nashville-Vanderbilt Holiday Inn, tired of waiting for his turn to speak to an attractive singer he’d been dating. Five minutes later, he had a hit song, titled “When You’re in Love With a Beautiful Woman.”

Stevens shared his story behind the global 1979 hit — and how he felt when he heard Dr. Hook’s discofied version of it — with Bart Herbison of Nashville Songwriters Association International.